Funai reports advances in CV, homicides and massacres associated with factional conflict in Mato Grosso Indigenous Lands

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The most recent letter was sent in early December by the National Secretary for Indigenous Territorial Rights, Marcos Kaingang. In the document, he reports that Operation Xapiri, which took place between August and October, could not prevent the “massive” return of minors to the territory. According to Funai’s assessment, the rise in gold prices is leading to the return of illegal extractivists.

“The groups remain active and are rapidly reorganizing, maintaining intense logistical movement, including transporting fuel, supplies and materials for the construction of precarious structures, bars and brothels within indigenous lands. There are traces of activity even at night,” Kaingang wrote.

The list of situations of extreme violence recorded in the region includes homicides and massacres, attacks against teams of Ibama, the Civil Police and the Federal Police and clashes between minors and civil servants. There are also attempts to encourage indigenous people to hide weapons in villages, in addition to the circulation of heavy weapons, such as rifles, and the use of explosives.

These deaths take place against a backdrop of territorial conflicts between factions, and the region has a history of killings linked to illegal mining, Funai says. On September 24 last year, four people died in a massacre sparked by a fight over control of an exploration area. The next day, three more people were murdered in similar circumstances. In another case a few months earlier, in May, two people were killed and four others shot.

“Intelligence agencies have recorded the advance of the criminal faction ‘Comando Vermelho’, in addition to factional conflicts to dominate illegal mineral extraction points in and around IT,” the letter said.

A previous letter already warned of the likely return of minors and criminals after the end of Operation Xapiri. Dated October 28, the document, signed by the president of Funai, Joenia Wapichana, and addressed to the Civil House, affirms that “efforts have not been sufficient to contain illicit activities on site”. At that time, a few days before the end of the operation, the authorities had already noted an increase in the “transport of supplies, fuel and people by boats on the Sararé River, including at night”.

According to Wapichana, the situation has even worsened in certain villages. In addition to manipulation attempts, criminals also began to use access roads to the homes of indigenous peoples, in addition to threatening leaders. Indigenous populations also report a process of internalization of certain groups of minors. Intelligence information cited in the letter highlighted that others, who had left the region with the operation, were already planning to resume their activities with more intensity from November.

The Red Command is also mentioned in this document. According to the president of Funai, the presence of this faction and others “provoked reactions of resistance among the miners, leading them to hire armed security guards, in a structure similar to the militias.” Quoted in the letter, Abin estimates that there are around ten rifles in just one of the mines under CV control.

The presence of organized crime in the region would have led to a process of “Mexicanization” of indigenous lands, according to an unidentified delegate of the Federal Police mentioned in the letter. The phrase refers to the problems faced by regions living under the control of drug cartels in the Latin American country. According to Funai, the increase in the price of the other could intensify ore extraction in the region and also increase tensions between miners and factions, thereby increasing violence.

In the letter, Wapichana emphasizes that the Funai base is in “extreme vulnerability”, without a security perimeter and positioned in such a way that there is no possibility of protecting itself from miners or offering a cordon of protection to the villages of Sararé TI.

Contacted, the Ministry of Justice and Public Security informed that in response to the request of the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, it had authorized the use of the National Public Security Force in support of Funai in the indigenous territory of Sararé “to carry out activities and services essential to the preservation of public order, the security of people and property”. “As part of this action, the National Force maintains permanent personnel in the region, in accordance with the requirements presented by the supported body,” the note specifies.